JP2013138701A - Medical image display apparatus, medical image display method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display at high speed medical image data which is possible to be required to display.SOLUTION: A data acquisition and control section 105 acquires medical image data that meet a search condition from the medical image data stored in a second data storage section 202. The data acquisition and control section 105 then stores the acquired medical image data in a first data storage section 103 that is accessible more fast than the second data storage section 202. Next, the data acquisition and control section 105 reads in the medical image data from the first data storage part 103 to display on a data display section 102.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for displaying medical image data.

  Medical image data of a patient obtained by using an image processing apparatus such as an X-ray CT (Computed Tomography) apparatus or an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) apparatus in the medical field due to the recent progress of image processing technology using a computer. Indispensable for pathological diagnosis. Normally, medical image data of a patient is stored in an in-hospital or out-of-hospital image data server via a network, and a doctor in charge reads and interprets medical image data on an image display terminal connected to the network.

  Further, medical image data is used not only for diagnosis but also for explanation of test results for patients, presentations at academic conferences, and as explanatory materials in meetings such as medical conferences by a plurality of doctors. In such a meeting, accessing the image data server every time the necessary medical image data is referred to takes time until the medical image data is displayed, which hinders smooth progress of the meeting. . For this reason, the doctor needs to select necessary medical image data in advance, set the order in which the medical image data is arranged, the arrangement position of the medical image data, and the like, and create the explanatory material data. Such work is cumbersome for busy doctors and is a heavy work load.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a method that can easily set and display explanatory materials for medical conferences in order to reduce a doctor's load. Patent Document 2 discloses a method of obtaining past case information that is helpful during a medical conference.

JP 2006-268120 A JP 2009-176234 A

  In meetings such as medical conferences, it is often required to present medical image data other than medical image data included in explanatory material data prepared in advance. In such a case, it is necessary to access the image data server each time to search for and obtain medical image data, so that there is a problem that it takes time to display the medical image data. However, the methods disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 cannot solve such a problem.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to display medical image data that may be requested to be displayed at high speed.

  The medical image display device of the present invention includes a setting unit that sets a search condition, an acquisition unit that searches and acquires medical image data that matches the search condition from the medical image data stored in the first storage unit. , Storage control means for storing medical image data acquired by the acquisition means in a second storage means accessible at a higher speed than the first storage means, and reading medical image data from the second storage means And display control means for displaying on the display means.

  According to the present invention, medical image data that may be required to be presented can be displayed at high speed.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the image display system in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the conference system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of related medical image data.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments to which the invention is applied will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an image display system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the image display system according to the present embodiment is used in a conference such as a medical conference, and a conference system 101 and an image server 201 are connected via a network 301. The conference system 101 can access the image server 201 via the network 301.

  The conference system 101 includes a data display unit 102, a first data storage unit 103, a related image search unit 104, and a data acquisition / control unit 105. The data display unit 102 displays explanatory material data used at the time of the medical conference, medical image data that is not included in the explanatory material data, but is requested to be presented at the time of the medical conference, and the like. Specific examples of the data display unit 102 include a display and a liquid crystal projector. Reference numeral 103 denotes a first data storage unit that is accessible at a higher speed than a second data storage unit 202 described later. Specific examples of the first data storage unit 103 include an HDD and a DRAM. The first data storage unit 103 stores explanatory material data and medical image data not included in the explanatory material data, and these data stored in the first data storage unit 103 are stored in a data display unit. It can be displayed immediately at 102. A related image search unit 104 searches medical image data related to the medical conference based on the search condition designated by the doctor according to the attribute of the medical conference. Reference numeral 105 denotes a data acquisition / control unit that supervises the processing of the conference system 101 such as data acquisition processing from the first data storage unit 103 and the second data storage unit 202 and data display processing in the data display unit 102. To control. The data acquisition / control unit 15 and the related image search unit 104 are functional configurations realized by the CPU reading and executing necessary programs and data from a recording medium such as an HDD into the RAM.

  The image server 201 stores medical image data obtained by imaging in the second data storage unit 202. The second data storage unit 202 has a lower access speed than the first data storage unit 103, but has a larger data storage capacity and higher reliability than the first data storage unit 103. A specific form of the second data storage unit 202 is, for example, an HDD. The second data storage unit 202 stores medical image data in DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) format. Note that the conference system 101 is an example of a medical image display apparatus. Further, the first data storage unit 103 is a configuration that is an example of the second storage unit, and the second data storage unit 202 is a configuration that is an example of the first storage unit.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing processing of the conference system 101 according to the present embodiment. Hereinafter, processing of the conference system 101 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Note that the processing shown in FIG. 2 is started in response to the creation of explanatory material data used during a medical conference by a doctor.

  In step S <b> 1, the data acquisition / control unit 105 stores the explanatory material data created by the doctor in the first data storage unit 103. Note that the explanatory material data includes medical image data of the target patient.

  In step S <b> 2, the related image search unit 104 sets search conditions specified by a doctor. The search condition set here is a search condition for searching for medical image data that the doctor presumes that there is a possibility of being presented at the time of a medical conference. Here, it is assumed that “medical image of a patient of the same age as the target patient” is set as a search condition. In step S <b> 3, the related image search unit 104 searches the second data storage unit 202 for medical image data (hereinafter referred to as acquisition candidate image data) that matches the search conditions set in step S <b> 2. The data acquisition / control unit 105 acquires attribute information of the acquisition candidate image data searched by the related image search unit 104 from the second data storage unit 202. For example, when “medical image of a patient of the same age as the target patient” is the search condition, the related image search unit 104 selects the target from the attribute information of the medical image data in the explanatory material data stored in the first data storage unit 103. Get the patient's age. Then, the related image search unit 104 accesses the image server 201 and searches the second data storage unit 202 for acquisition candidate image data of a patient of the same age as the target patient. The data acquisition / control unit 105 acquires, from the second data storage unit 202, the attribute information of the acquisition candidate image data of the patient of the same age as the target patient searched by the related image search unit 104.

  In step S <b> 4, the related image search unit 104 compares the attribute information of the acquisition candidate image data acquired in step S <b> 3 with the attribute information of the medical image data in the explanation material data, and acquires the acquisition candidate image in the explanation material data. It is determined whether the same medical image data as the data exists. If there is no medical image data identical to the acquisition candidate image data in the explanation material data, the process proceeds to step S5. On the other hand, when the same medical image data as the acquisition candidate image data exists in the explanation material data, the process skips step S5 and proceeds to step S6.

  In step S5, the data acquisition / control unit 105 acquires the acquisition candidate image data from the second data storage unit 202, and stores the acquired candidate image data in the first data storage unit 103 as related medical image data. Step S5 is a processing example of the storage control means. In step S6, the data acquisition / control unit 105 determines an end condition. If the end condition is satisfied, the process ends. On the other hand, if the end condition is not satisfied, the process returns to step S3, and the same process is repeated for the next acquisition candidate image data. Examples of the termination condition include “the number of related medical image data stored in the first data storage unit 103 reaches a certain value”.

  As described above, at the start of the medical conference, related medical image data that is estimated to be requested at the time of the medical conference is stored in the first data storage unit 103. Therefore, even when the presentation of related medical image data is suddenly requested during a medical conference, the related medical image data can be immediately read from the first data storage unit 103 and displayed on the data display unit 102. . Accordingly, smooth and efficient medical conference progress can be realized. Note that the display format of the related medical image data in the data display unit 102 is not limited to a specific format. For example, as shown in 301 of FIG. 3, thumbnail image data of the related medical image data is displayed. It may be. The above-described processing for reading related medical image data from the first data storage unit 103 and displaying it on the data display unit 102 is a processing example of the display control unit.

  Note that each configuration shown in FIG. 1 is a functional configuration, and each configuration does not have to be physically configured as shown in FIG. That is, each configuration may be divided and integrated functionally or physically in an arbitrary unit.

  In the embodiment described above, the process shown in FIG. 2 is executed in response to the creation of the explanatory material data by the doctor, but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, in consideration of the load of the conference system 101 and the like, the processing shown in FIG. 2 may be executed by batch processing or the like at night, for example. In consideration of the data storage capacity of the first data storage unit 103, the processing shown in FIG. 2 may be executed in the background immediately before or during the medical conference (during presentation).

  Of course, the search condition set in step S2 is not limited to “medical images of patients of the same age as the target patient”. For example, “a medical image of a patient having the same physical characteristics as the target patient” may be used as the search condition. Here, “physical characteristics” include, for example, “sex”, “height”, “weight”, “allergy”, “pregnancy state”, “smoking state”, and the like. In addition, search conditions such as “age if the target department is a neurosurgery subject to the target patient”, “blood type if the department is internal medicine”, and “weight if it is a surgery” may be set. Further, a logical product of these search conditions, for example, “medical image of a patient having the same age and blood type as the target patient” may be used as the search condition. Further, medical image data having a high display frequency for each symptom may be searched from the past display count. For example, “if the target patient has lung cancer, search for medical image data having a high display frequency during a medical conference related to lung cancer” may be used as a search condition. At this time, the data acquisition / control unit 105 counts the number of times medical image data is displayed on the data display unit 102 for each medical condition, and manages the number of times displayed for each symptom for each medical image data. Furthermore, the display frequency of each medical image data may be managed in association with the characteristics of the target patient.

  In the above-described embodiment, as an example of the end condition, “the number of related medical image data stored in the first data storage unit 103 reaches a certain value” is given as an example. Absent. For example, “the total capacity of the files stored in the first data storage unit 103 may reach a certain capacity” may be used. Further, when the data storage capacity of the first data storage unit 103 is sufficiently large, as a search condition, “all medical image data matching the search condition set in step S 1 is stored in the first data storage unit 103. May be set.

  In the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, thumbnail image data of related medical image data is displayed. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, related medical image data may be displayed as an icon on the window.

  The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, or the like) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

  101: Conference system 102: Data display unit 103: First data storage unit 104: Related image search unit 105: Data acquisition / control unit 201: Image server 202: Second data storage unit 301: Network

Claims (6)

A setting means for setting search conditions;
Obtaining means for retrieving and obtaining medical image data that matches the search condition from medical image data stored in the first storage means;
Storage control means for storing medical image data acquired by the acquisition means in a second storage means accessible at a higher speed than the first storage means;
A medical image display apparatus, comprising: display control means for reading medical image data from the second storage means and displaying the medical image data on the display means.   The acquisition unit searches and acquires medical image data that matches the search condition from the first storage unit based on attribute information of medical image data stored in advance in the second storage unit. The medical image display apparatus according to claim 1.   3. The medical image data according to claim 2, wherein the medical image data stored in advance in the second storage means is medical image data included in the explanatory material data created for use in a meeting. Display device.   The medical image display apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the storage control unit causes the second storage unit to store the medical image data acquired by the acquisition unit before the conference is started. . A medical image display method executed by a medical image display device,
A setting step for setting search conditions;
An acquisition step of searching and acquiring medical image data that matches the search condition from medical image data stored in the first storage means;
A storage control step of storing the medical image data acquired in the acquisition step in a second storage unit accessible at a higher speed than the first storage unit;
A medical image display method comprising: a display control step of reading medical image data from the second storage unit and displaying the medical image data on a display unit. A setting step for setting search conditions;
An acquisition step of searching and acquiring medical image data that matches the search condition from medical image data stored in the first storage means;
A storage control step of storing the medical image data acquired in the acquisition step in a second storage unit accessible at a higher speed than the first storage unit;
A program for causing a computer to execute a display control step of reading medical image data from the second storage unit and displaying the medical image data on a display unit.

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